Fatima Halloum
If you’ve never heard of Bangladeshi Rock music, OverDrive’s concert at Dreambuilders in Hoppers Crossing could be the place to go.
The group recently scored a grant of $1000 through an Australia Post initiative to help support community groups.
Members of the band used the funding to contribute to the costs of a free community rock festival on Saturday, August 20.
Guitarist and vocalist Mahamudur Rahman said he was “really happy” for a chance to promote the Bangla language through their performance.
“There are some great songs, great music, in Bangladesh, it’s a very popular genre,” Mr Rahman said.
The band is made up of five members, who are all volunteers and lead ordinary lives outside their musical endeavors.
“We have our main lead guitarist, he’s an engineer, I work at Australia post, our bass guitarist is a full time teacher, our drummer is an IT professional, another side vocal is from the finance background,” Mr Rahman said.
“It’s our part-time passion, we like to do music and we do it when we have some spare time.”
Six bands will perform on the night and Mr Rahman is confident the concert will be a “great time” and prove to the audience that the municipality is home to local talent.
“There’s not many local Bangledishi bands that are active in Melbourne at the moment, there are about six of them, so we do not get the opportunity to perform for a good crowd,” he said.
“We got together and actually organised the event so local bands get excited … and then put up a show.”
Mr Rahman said he hopes people from non-Bangla speaking backgrounds also feel encouraged to attend the concert.
